Summer jewellery: light pieces for holidays, heat and the beach

Summer asks different things of jewellery. Heat makes fingers swell, sweat and sun cream sit on the skin all day, and a holiday adds salt water, chlorine and sand. The best summer pieces are the ones you put on in the morning and forget about: light, secure and gentle on warm skin. Here is how to choose them, and how to keep the plating looking good until autumn.

What makes a piece right for hot weather

Before style, three practical checks decide whether a piece still feels comfortable at four in the afternoon.

• Weight. Heavy earrings drag on the lobes over a long, hot day, and a chunky chain feels warm against the neck. Small, fine pieces are easy to forget.
• Fastening. On the beach or a busy day out, a piece that slips off is usually gone for good. Push-back studs and hinged hoops stay put better than open hooks.
• Base metal. Nickel in cheap metal reacts with sweat, which is why a sensitivity often shows up in summer first. ROTAS69 jewellery is nickel-free, with plating over a hypoallergenic base such as medical steel, so it suits sensitive skin in the heat too.

Piece by piece: what to wear in the heat

• Earrings. Small hoop earrings and push-back studs are the workhorses of summer. They sit close to the ear, don't catch in hair tied up off the neck, and look as right with a beach cover-up as with a linen dress. Save long drops for the evening.
• Necklaces. In the heat, one fine chain beats a stack of layers, which tend to tangle on damp skin. A length of 40–45 cm sits at or just below the collarbone and shows off an open neckline. Browse our chains; some come in a choice of lengths.
• Bracelets. A slim chain bracelet is lighter and cooler than a wide bangle, and one with an extension chain copes with a wrist that swells a little in the heat.
• Rings. Fingers swell in hot weather, so a ring that fits perfectly in spring can feel tight in July. If you are between sizes, go up rather than down for a summer ring, and measure in the afternoon, not first thing in the morning, using our size guide.

Gold-plated or silver-tone in summer

Both tones work in summer; they just do different jobs.

• Gold-plated pieces warm up tanned skin and look lovely with white, coral, terracotta and olive. The shade depends on the plating: 14K has a lemony tone, 18K comes in either a slightly reddish or a paler shade depending on the piece, and 24K has the colour of pure gold. Browse our gold-plated jewellery.
• Silver-tone pieces with rhodium or platinum plating look cool and fresh with white linen, navy and every shade of blue, and they flatter fair skin that doesn't tan. See our silver-tone jewellery.

Cubic zirconia sparkles in strong sunlight, so one small stone is often enough by day. Pearls are better kept for evenings out: sun cream, perfume and salt water are hard on their surface.

Sun cream, sea, pool and sweat

Summer is tough on plating, but a few habits help:

• Take jewellery off before the pool. Chlorine is the harshest thing plating meets in everyday life, and even a single swim can leave a visible mark.
• Rinse after the sea. Salt keeps working until it is washed off, so rinse the piece in fresh water the same day and dry it completely.
• Put jewellery on last. Let sun cream, insect repellent and perfume soak in first.
• Rinse sand off rather than rubbing it. Sand is abrasive, and rubbing it away wears plating down just as a polishing cloth does.
• Wipe with a soft, dry cloth at the end of each day to remove sweat before it builds up.
• Leave pieces with glued-in stones at home on beach days. Water gets under the stone and loosens the glue.

Read more in our guides to wearing jewellery in water and caring for gold-plated jewellery. For pieces you can wear into the sea without a second thought, choose unplated medical steel: it does not rust, and water does not harm it.

Packing jewellery for a holiday

• Take less than you think. Two pairs of earrings, one chain and one bracelet will see you through a week: studs or small hoops for the beach, something with a little sparkle for the evening.
• Keep pieces apart. Give each one its own pouch or folded tissue so chains don't knot and pieces don't scratch.
• Pack them in your hand luggage rather than your suitcase, and never leave them in a damp beach bag: a wet piece in a closed bag suffers more than it would in the sea.
• Take it off for the sauna. Heat and sweat together speed up wear on plating, so leave your jewellery in your room on spa days.

Summer jewellery on a budget

Holidays are when jewellery tends to go missing: dropped in the sand, lost in the sea or left in a hotel room. So take affordable fashion jewellery away and leave anything irreplaceable at home. Small gold-plated hoops, a fine chain and a slim bracelet make a complete summer look for less than one piece of solid gold jewellery, and anything lost is easy to replace.